Logan2 Disclaimer: La la la Marvel owns X-Men and I own Karenina and everyone should respect that and get on with the story, for chrissakes!!!

Dream Made Real, Chapter 3.

The next day...

Karenina sat across from the Professor, a devilish half-smile and her always glowing eyes making him shake his head.

"We were worried about you," he frowned.

"I know," she retorted, grinning. "But you knew I had to go, and there was no way anyone was stopping me. That's why you didn't come after me."

Xavier nodded. They always had conversations like these, silent on the outside, the words all in their minds. He felt her growing even more concentrated, strong and precise. He had taught her everything he could about telepathy, and she had absorbed it all with great voracity, studying and strengthening herself. He felt that if she continued with her studies of control, there was no limit to what she could achieve.

"I did exactly what you told me to do. I went where I felt I should...Back to the institution, or what's left of it..."

She shivered. The energy of the gutted building was too much for her, even with all her control tactics. She hadn't made it past the gate before the ghostly voices and emotional agony was so deafening that she had to turn back.

"Someday, 'Nina. Someday you'll be able to go back. I'll go with you."

She nodded solemnly. It had been her greatest goal, and she had failed. She turned away in frustration.

"So I did the next best thing. I found out as much about Greymount as I could. Its history...over a hundred years of lies and torture. I'm glad, now, that I don't remember it. And if my parents knew when they put me there..."

She trailed off, her face a mask of pain and anger. Her parents were a subject she seldom spoke of. Their betrayal, and the subsequent events had shaped endless pain.

"I found out a lot of secrets...Old employees that said one thing and thought another. They were almost impossible to find, but I did."

She stopped, not ready to re-live what she had found out, and effectively blocking her thoughts to Xavier, as she felt him trying to see what she would not say.

"Get out of there," she frowned. "It's just not time yet, okay?"

Xavier nodded, respecting her wishes. She would tell him when it was time.

"What I found there took me up north...an Alkali lake near the Rockies. So much energy...Professor, my god. There was more pain there than at the institution. It was beyond horrible. But that's when I started seeing his dreams."

"Logan," Xavier nodded. "He asked about you this morning."

Karenina smiled. "He must be pretty irritated with me, huh?"

"It's just Logan's way. You've affected him pretty intensely."

"He's affected me pretty intensely, too!" Karenina exclaimed, out loud this time. "I couldn't get this guy out of my head! From the minute I got to the lake, he was there. His dreams, his thoughts, Professor...I still don't know what happened to me, but I know...It happened to Logan, too. This is a mental connection I've never felt before. That's why I had to find him. It was all I could think about. He consumed my mind. So I let him lead me to him. And here I am."

She smiled and leaned back in the chair. "Who'd think I had to go to Canada to get back here?"

The professor smiled. He had always had a great affinity for Nina. She had so much fire in her, so much strength to have survived what she did...She was as close as a daughter to him.

"I'm very glad you came back, Nina. You're far too thin, and you look like you haven't slept in weeks. We're all very glad you're home."

"Yeah. I saw Jean and Scott this morning, and there are so many new kids...it's great. So...Do you think Logan will ever talk to me?"

"I think Logan wants to talk to you very much. But this is all very new to him. He feels out of control with you, and Logan has a very hard time dealing with feelings like that."

She nodded. "It's been very intense for me, too. Unique. I guess I just want to understand it, and he'd be just as contented to have it--and me--dissapear."

Xavier smiled. "But that's just it. I don't think he wants you to go away. And that confuses him even more."

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Copyright 2000, Asphyxia Bronte